The Darkening

The deafening sound of silence echoes in the halls of former coal fired power plants around Michigan and all over this nation. The sounds of birds nesting and raccoons fighting have replaced the sounds of fire and water and steam. Hot power lines are being replaced by the cold hard truth; the left is turning out the lights under the guise of environmental stewardship. Were these plants out of date or not in good running order? For the most part the answer is no, they were just fine; but that didn’t stop ever farther reaching ‘environmental standards’ that are more like tickets to the energy bone yard, given by those on the left, hell-bent on destroying the way America operates. America has for more than a century and a half relied on vast quantities of cheap energy. The specific types of energy have changed from wood, to coal, to kerosene and oil. Now we use gasoline and natural gas and still use millions of metric tons of coal but that industry is dying. Not because the United States is a nation in environmental decline but because those on the left refuse to understand windmills and solar panels are at least a couple of generations removed form being a credible and reliable source for power.

In Michigan as many as 25 plants will be shuttered in just the next four years as they buckle under the burden of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In teacher’s lounges and lecture halls on elitist college campuses across this nation the express train to turn out the lights is picking up speed. It is startling to know that if you ask the average college or high school kid today about the state of the environment, nearly all of them will tell you America is far dirtier today than it was 100 years ago. They think London and Berlin have become trashed over the last century and we are on our way to an ever-widening filthy mess.

Think about how odd that is. Our smartest young people strolling across campuses with the world at their fingertips on their ubiquitous smart phones don’t seem to know a hell of a lot about much of anything. I mean how long would it take to find historical pictures of New York, Chicago, Pittsburg or Detroit? For that matter a quick internet search of Lake Erie in 1970 or Philly in 1975 would shock our young millennial do-gooders and could, dare I say, jolt them out of their intellectual coma.

I find it incredible that with these tiny miracles of modern science just about everywhere, hand held computers (iPhones, Androids and even Blackberries) that a couple decades ago would have been considered super computers because of their blistering speed and incredible capabilities are still used primarily to take pictures of peoples food to post on inane social media sights, find the closest sale or hook up for sex. Almost any kind of sex you can imagine but still.

I do research every day on too many topics to recall. I read and scan through dozens of websites and scores of articles every day to get a host of ideas from a wide array of authors with many divergent points of view. I usually find myself on the right side of political conversations but I am by no means beholden to any political party or affiliation. I am conservative but just today I sided with three very liberal Supreme Court Justices on their dissent to a case that ruled police can in fact use evidence found during an unlawful traffic stop, just as long as they find a legitimate reason once the person is detained like an outstanding warrant for a single parking ticket. The local police are gonna need a lot more hooks and plenty of poles because I can guarantee you they are going fishing and soon.

I say all of this because it is deeply disturbing that people don’t think for themselves these days the way they did when I was younger. People seem far more prone to see a catchy phrase on Facebook or celebrity outburst on Twitter and somehow that becomes their opinion. (I was swayed once by a powerful refrain by Roger Daltrey but that was different- I wasn’t sober!) The lines of division have been drawn by the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and a thousand hyper-partisan websites all touting their singularly unique, actual and perfect understanding of the world and current events swirling around us like a Kansas tornado passing over an open garbage dump. Make sure to plug your nose while reading some of these sights like Vox, Info Wars and so many more.

Common sense took a back seat long ago to peoples allegiance to extreme political ideology. Challenging authority and questioning just about everything the government tells you was once the hallmark of millions. It was especially true of liberals dancing in the streets with peace signs and ‘Question Authority’ tee shirts. Today those same leftists have veered into the ditch and now accept just about anything the government tells them and they have donned Che Guevara tee shirts over those proclaiming ‘free love.’

The real shift began in about 1970 I think. Sit-ins were being held across the country against the government, Nixon, the Vietnam War, and then the National Guard at Kent State murdered four Ohio college students. The government was the avowed enemy to those on the left.

Liberals with blow horns stood on stages screaming that we’d run out of oil in ten years, 500 million would be starving to death by 1980, an ice age was coming, death of the planet was imminent. None of those things ever came to pass of course but instead of challenging the government that funded the radicals making the most outrageous claims, something strange happened, they got on board the eco-activist-save-the-planet-train. Instead of questioning authority these sell-outs jumped on the big government train and question nothing.

There is a darkening coming our way and it isn’t accidental but rather it is by design. You see if you are dependent on the government for the very basics of your life including food, water and electricity then by extension you are therefore beholden to that very body. Unfortunately the theology of liberalism is so singularly focused on the leftist agenda that it rarely raises it’s lizard-like head.

What is even more tragic is the darkening not only effects the flow of energy and the powering of America, the darkening is also in the programmed minds that are unable to think independently or ‘Question Authority’ no matter how overwhelming the truth may actually be.